Looking for a unique sensory bin idea that will cool off your children and keep them entertained for a REALLY long time?! Then you are in the right place! Just freeze wildflowers in extra large sphere ice molds and your morning is set for a fun ice sensory play activity,
We have ourselves a new summer tradition! This ice sensory play bin was an absolute hit with both me and the boys. I couldn’t believe how beautiful the ice spheres turned out when I popped them out of the freezer! I mean, just look at these beauties!
Supplies:
- Sphere Ice Molds– We originally bought some sphere ice molds from Target that were much smaller than the ones I linked. You can also see those in the tray. They were fine, but my boys LOVED the bigger spheres. I recommend just going with the larger size.
- Fine Motor Tools– This is probably one of the most used items in our home! I love this set.
- Paintbrushes– This is optional. I like to add new items to keep their interest.
- Spray Bottle– This is also optional, but my boys loved this addition! Plus the boys transitioned to spraying the plants in our yard after the activity so it definitely kept them busy!
- Tray or bin- This tray is from Target.
- Cup or jar for warm water
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Here’s How We Set Up The Ice Sensory Play Area:
Step 1:
First, pick flowers to put in your ice molds. We used a variety of wildflowers from our yard, but the Black-Eyed Susans were the biggest hit! You will see the smaller mold pictured below. Add water, freeze, and repeat the process if you want more spheres. It took me a couple days to make all of mine.
Step 2:
Set up your ice sensory play tray. I put some of the spheres in a bowl and let the rest roll around on the tray. I also added the fine motor tools, paintbrushes, warm water, spray bottle, and let them go!
Leo went straight for the squeeze tube. He picked up one of the large sphere’s and got right to work.
Soon he realized that he could drop the sphere directly into the warm water to make it melt quicker.
Sonny was a big fan of the handy scooper and loved watching the flower spin around inside the tool. Pretty cool!
As the spheres started to melt, the boys tried to pick the flowers out of the ice with tweezers.
At this point, the boys were busy trying to defrost the spheres for about 30 minutes! It wasn’t super warm so I think this helped them last longer. They continued until most of them were melted which was about 15 more minutes. They had a blast and I had fun watching them experiment with this ice sensory play activity!
Please Pin this activity if you love it!
I hope you give this fun ice sensory play activity a try! I promise, your little nature lovers will love it as much as my boys.
∼Tara
